The Industry Standard - 10 contenders (and one real long shot) for Obama's CTO - Comments

Sonal Shah please. She has

Jack — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 16:47:13 -0500

Sonal Shah please. She has the right mix of Govt, Private and Google (the third category !)

what about Charles Phillips

Linda — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:53:48 -0500

what about Charles Phillips of Oracle?

I nominate Senator Ted

rob frost — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 04:47:37 -0500

I nominate Senator Ted "Series of tubes" Stevens.
He'd be awesome.

Al Pal, They are not

Mandrake — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 04:25:53 -0500

Al Pal,

They are not discussing about a CEO but a CTO and that's where lies the rub.

A CTO has a different role in not just policy making or working with the government but also to take some initiatives (moderate or extreme) to get the ball rolling. His/Her priorities are different than the CEO. CEOs are only interested in stock points going up and jitter when the market wobbles.

Why it has to be someone we

Al — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:34:48 -0500

Why it has to be someone we know.. famous Techies.

When HP, IBM or EMC hire CEOs from outside, they don't look for "tech celebs".

You need a person who could
: work with the govt.
: understands people as well as technology.
: windows, unix, open standard - all these issues for IT world are NON-issues for govt.

1.5 cents (due to recession).
Al,

Hear! Hear! I was wondering

Barry — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:17:49 -0500

Hear! Hear!

I was wondering the same thing...

This list IS a joke.

Gates, Ballmer, and Yang

bj — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:50:03 -0500

Gates, Ballmer, and Yang shouldn't even be in contention.

What about Susan Crawford or Art Brodsky or Harold Feld? They all have huge experience on the policy side, though I think AT&T and Verizon execs would have a cow if any of those three were brought up.

I disagree about the CTO having to have Private Sector Experience. I think Government and Policy experience is much more valuable in this situation. Especially given how the Private Sector has screwed everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) up, from top to bottom.

Wasn't Jerry Yang on

Philip Washington — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:19:44 -0500

Wasn't Jerry Yang on 'American Idol'. I thought he had a big following.

Jobs shouldn't make the list

Steve - Philadelphia — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:19:28 -0500

Jobs shouldn't make the list as he's been in a state of narrowcast focus for so long. He is also temperamental, impulsive and I don't believe is a consistently good strategic thinker. His eternally damning blunder, though, was to forget (or never learn) the Beta vs. VHS lesson learned so painfully by Sony. Apple "coulda been a contender," but now they are still a side show; of religious interest to a relatively small segment of the world's computer users, eclipsed by a second-rate company who made the right decision to license their OS to thousands of box manufacturers. So, unfortunately, Microsoft ruled the world for a very long time only to be eclipsed recently by Google. Apple is still an extremely minor company on the world stage. This is frustrating for me who got into the industry because the Apple II was just so cool I couldn't resist getting involved. But I have no illusion that Jobs is the guy for the nation's CTO job.

I think whoever becomes the

Zia — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 00:03:14 -0500

I think whoever becomes the CTO must not only understand US issues but also have a clear understanding of global ICT challenges and what role the US may play to reduce the digital divide. While I am inclined to have an academic person in this seat but I would like to see a blend of practical experience in running organizations as an important factor to consider. I do not want GOVT. appointee to be named for this position. I think that will more or less kill innovation.

Zia
IITM
Dhaka
luckytoaccess@gmail.com

Good grief - do people

Jennifer — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:19:07 -0500

Good grief - do people actually still believe the Al Gore/Internet myth or was he/she trying to funny?
That was debunked YEARS ago.

Why wouldn't someone like

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:29:26 -0500

Why wouldn't someone like Gideon Gartner or George Colony be on the list?

Now see, I'd argue the

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira509894 — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:08:23 -0500

Now see, I'd argue the reverse. Who better to cut through vendor BS than someone with experience dishing it out?

A CTO needs to have

David B — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:37:13 -0500

A CTO needs to have experience in running very large systems, to understand what needs to be done to keep the lights on and to know what hype the vendors will tell you and see through it. I think that disqualifies everyone from the vendor side, they're good at generating hype not cutting through it!

I like this guy:

Angela Wilson Gyetvan — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:11:08 -0500

I like this guy: http://www.gregorbailar.com/about.html#bio
Lots of finance and stock market experience, disaster-readiness, highly-regarded, and makes a mean martini, to boot. Much better than someone who's been running a great big search engine or a giant online bookstore.

10 contenders (and one real long shot) for Obama's CTO

Ian Lamont — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:59:22 -0500

Bill Clinton famously sent just two emails during his entire eight years as president. George W. Bush has preferred radio addresses to communicate with the American people. President-elect Barack Obama, on the other hand, has demonstrated a very strong grasp of digital technologies and their potential to connect constituents and even change the way the U.S. government does business. During the campaign, Obama announced his intention to appoint a national CTO to help improve the sprawling federal technology infrastructure and associated policies. Already there is a great deal of speculation about who might get the CTO job. In the following pages, we've profiled some of the people who have been floated as potential candidates. Despite the fact that the list is heavily weighted toward West Coast technology entrepreneurs, it gives some fascinating insights into the heroes of the software and Internet industries. A few of the names will undoubtedly surprise you, including one well-known long shot appearing at the end of the list.

Slide 1 of 12

	Slide 2 of 12 Bill Gates Microsoft's co-founder and former CEO has experience building and running a large technology organization, and through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has demonstrated interests in using technology to improve healthcare and education. Nevertheless, Industry Standard readers have panned him as a pick for CTO.

	Slide 3 of 12 Julius Genachowski One of Obama's former colleagues from the Harvard Law Review, Genachowski advised two FCC chairmen during the Clinton administration. In recent years, he founded a startup incubator and has helped the president-elect formulate technology policy as a senator. Genachowski now advises the transition team on the CTO decision. Photo credit: Anonymous

Slide 4 of 12

Eric Schmidt

Google's CEO has been referred to as a "third leg" to co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, but Schmidt's technology management credentials are hard to beat: He has a PhD in computer science and ran Novell before being hired by Paige and Brin. He's already advising Obama on technology issues, but has reportedly said he's not interested in the CTO position.

Photo: weforum.org/Severin Nowacki, Creative Commons License

Slide 5 of 12

Lawrence Lessig

The Stanford Law School professor behind the Creative Commons movement would bring a deep understanding of technology law and policy to Washington. But Lessig's appointment would almost certainly be opposed by powerful legal and business interests -- and their friends in Congress -- for his stances on copyright reform and other issues. He has no experience running a large technology organization, which makes this rumor hard to believe.

Photo: easement

	Slide 6 of 12 Ed Felten Felten is another academic whose areas of expertise include security, privacy, and open-source technologies. He may understand software and Internet-related policies, but he doesn't have experience running a large organization. Photo: Princeton

	Slide 7 of 12 Bill Joy The KPCB partner and co-founder of Sun Microsystems has excellent technology, management, and entrepreneurial instincts -- as well as some interesting ideas about technology, ethics, and the future of the human race. Would these attributes help him roll with the punches in Washington? Photo: Wikipedia

	Slide 8 of 12 Jeff Bezos Amazon's founder and CEO has some of the best qualifications for the CTO position in terms of management experience and evaluating emerging technologies. Bezos also has a very strong grasp of many important policy issues. However, convincing him to set aside Amazon and his other ventures might be difficult. Photo: etech

Slide 9 of 12

Steve Ballmer

Microsoft's CEO has a reputation for toughness and an aversion to failure, and runs one of the largest technology companies in the world. These elements would serve him well in Washington, but he's not as strong a technologist as Bill Gates. His appointment would undoubtedly be protested by open-source advocates and competitors, who would fear Windows and other Microsoft products being given preference in federal technology contracts and policy decisions.

Photo: DBegley

	Slide 10 of 12 Sonal Shah Shah is one of the few rumored contenders to have actually worked in government. She currently heads global development initiatives at Google, but prior to that worked at Goldman Sachs, the Center for American Progress, and the U.S. Treasury Department. She's also advising Obama's transition team on the CTO search. Photo: Anonymous

	Slide 11 of 12 Donald Gips Gips is the vice president of corporate strategy and development for Level 3 Communications, and served Al Gore. Although Gips didn't help the former vice president invent the Internet, he was Gore's chief domestic policy advisor and has a deep understanding of technology and communication policies. He too is advising Obama's transition team. Photo: Anonymous

	Slide 12 of 12 Long shot: Jerry Yang We had to rub our eyes when we saw this name on the list of contenders for Obama's national CTO. There's no logical reason that the Yahoo CEO and co-founder should be on the list, considering Yahoo's abysmal performance under his watch. Indeed, the source of the rumor appears to be a blog poll. The results of the poll are telling.